


How I Met the One

by angstbot



Series: Readers' Choice [16]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-04-25 04:38:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4947013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstbot/pseuds/angstbot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Actor AU. Emma and Regina are actors on a hit sitcom. This fic is one big SWEN in-joke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How I Met the One

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt in endnote because it gives too much away. Readers' Choice VI, part 3.

The show’s premise was simple enough. A successful businesswoman goes looking for love and meets all the wrong people. It had been groundbreaking to make the lead bisexual, but beyond that it was pretty much a formulaic sitcom—“The One” of the title perpetually, episodically deferred as Mr. or Ms. Right would become clearly wrong after one date, or two, or even half a season, and the leading lady would commiserate over junk food with the woman she’d hired to watch her son.

But from the shy “Hi” and disbelieving “You’re the babysitter?” in the pilot, a large part of the internet fanbase had been advocating for babysitter Allison and businesswoman Elena to get together, forget the revolving door of possible love interests. These fans seemed to grow in number and intensity as the show continued and the two women grew closer.

Emma had never encouraged them, of course, because her PR instructions were clear, but she did tweet things like “Love all my fans! #Allena #Allcy #Collison.” She felt like she should give them _some_ acknowledgement when they clearly loved her and her character so much. It was just common courtesy.

But now, after the cliffhanger at the end of the previous season, even the mainstream media was clamoring for Elena to see that her babysitter Allison was The One after all.

“Yeah, you know, I think they have a really strong bond,” Emma said diplomatically in response to at least the third Allena question of this press junket. “So if that was where the writers wanted to go I would totally find it rewarding as an actor to explore that relationship. And Regina is great to work with!” She put on a pleasant smile.

And of course, Allison _was_ The One. Everyone was increasingly saying it looked it like they were slowly falling in love because they had been playing it that way. It had been written that Allison and Elena were developing toward a romance; they had known from the beginning. Now, they were finally going to make that turn in their relationship and make the subtext between the women text.

“Cut! Emma, I know you’re tired, but you’ve gotta focus,” the director sighed. Emma understood his frustration. She was mad about it herself. This should have been a quick, easy scene—just the two of them, only a couple of angles to get coverage. But here she was flubbing her lines and ruining take after take like some student film reject.

“Can we take a break, Valentino? Only a few minutes,” Regina assured him, her hand finding Emma’s elbow to guide her out of the lights and away from everyone else.

Emma was in full panic mode now, too freaked out to even begin to think of how to get herself out of this situation. Regina was touching her. Regina was _touching_ her. She needed Regina to not be touching her.

“Emma, are you alright?” Regina asked, and the care in her eyes was too much. The solicitude, that kindness and gentleness when she knew this woman was notoriously snarky and took absolutely no shit from anyone, and oh god Regina was standing so close, and she clearly expected Emma to say something, what was she supposed to be saying-

“I’m good!” Emma squeaked, and she knew it wasn’t convincing.  

Regina’s eyes narrowed. “Are you certain?”

“Yeah, yeah. Long day.” Emma sniffed and gritted her teeth as she gave a fake smile. “I can do it. Lemme just get some air.”

Emma stumbled out of the soundstage and leaned against the wall beside the door. She forced herself to take deep breaths, trying to convince herself that it would be fine. She was a fucking professional. She could do this. But a little voice in her head kept whispering that if she was fucking up basic things like this, she was never going to survive this story arc. There was going to be touching. And kissing. And that made her feel like she might puke on her shoes.

**

With supreme willpower and going to see Archie to increase the dose on her anti-anxiety meds, Emma managed to pull herself together and get through the first several episodes of the season. But then came _the_ episode. When Elena and Allison were going to realize that what they wanted had been right in front of them all along.

Emma was made up with a cut on her forehead, because this show was a little slapstick sometimes, and Elena was supposed to be leaning in to dab at it, and then their eyes would meet and they would kiss, just in time for the end of the first half of the season.

Emma made it through her close-up. She made it through the reverse-shot over her shoulder. But then the time came to do the two-shot and the kiss, and she was leaning in, and then she was hyperventilating.

“We’re rolling,” the director insisted. “Try it again, Em.”

And Emma tried. She did, but every time she got close to touching her lips against Regina’s she just _couldn’t._

“Cut,” the director sighed.

“I’m sorry, Bill,” Emma said. The guy was about a million years old, and cranky, and frail, and she felt awful making his job harder.

“It’s okay, sweet cheeks,” he said conspiratorially. “I’d be shy to kiss that gorgeous lady too! Take five and we’ll come back to it, okay?”

Emma was in her spot outside the soundstage doing her breathing exercises when Regina confronted her. “What the hell, Emma? Why do we keep ending up back here? Do you have a problem with this storyline? Are you homophobic, or something?”

“What? No. Of course not,” Emma sputtered. That was the last thing she expected to be accused of. “I’m open to it. Just has to be, you know, earned and done right. Like any love story,” she deflected lamely. “And I think we’re doing that.” She gave a weak smile.

Regina was not placated. “Okay then, do you have a problem with _me_?”

“Oh. Oh no. Not at all. You’re great!” Now Emma felt truly awful for making Regina even consider that. “I just, um, feel like I wanna really do this right? It’s important because the fans, the LGBT audience, have been such big supporters of the show. They really deserve a love story that reflects that. And that’s a lot of pressure, and it’s just getting to me.”

“You’re right,” Regina said. “They do deserve an epic love story. Come on, let’s give them one,” she coaxed, and how could Emma resist that rare smile that could light up the whole world?

**

With Regina quite literally holding her hand, Emma made it through the kiss scene, despite the fact that Bill was perving on them and made them do interminable takes. She made it through the next few episodes, too, buckling down even though Archie absolutely refused to give her any more pills.

And then the episode aired. The Allena fan base was beside itself with joy, tweeting at her in droves. There was also a weird influx of people in her Twitter mentions going on about how Elena was abusive to Allison. These folks were very certain that the character the show added as male eye-candy in season 2 was the superior choice for Allison. And all of them sounded exactly the same, like it was one person with eighteen accounts. Emma made heavy use of the Block button and shrugged it off.

But that was all fine, if annoying, until The Tweet hit her feed. It was the comic they’d retained as the moderator for an upcoming industry promotional panel.

Yolanda Lisa Smith  
_OMG @EmSwan and @Regina_Mills are NOT gay. Don’t spread rumors that will ruin their career. So uncool._

Emma’s heart stopped in her chest. People were speculating about _her_ because of Allison. Those rumors would ruin her career. Rumors about her. Ruin her career. Rumor. Ruin. It went around and around in her head as she stared at her computer.  

Smith’s tweet set off a firestorm. Allena fans leapt in to tell Smith her comment was homophobic. Some of them were polite, but many were harsh. Smith fired back, blasting all of them indiscriminately. A flood of accounts using the same talking points as the ones that had come after Emma jumped into the fray. Emma watched it all scroll continuously down her feed in horrified disbelief.

Emma didn’t know how long she sat there, dazed. Text messages came. Her phone rang. Once, twice. The third time she shut it off.

Eventually she was startled by a pounding on her front door. Moving automatically, she got up and went to answer it.

“Emma, are you alright?” Regina demanded, pushing her way inside immediately. “Why weren’t you answering your phone? I want to celebrate! We’re a success!” The older woman explained, raising a bottle of champagne.

Emma just blinked at her. Regina was the last person she wanted to see right now. What the hell was she going to say? What was she going to do? Her blood pounded in her ears.

The older woman stopped and stared at her. “Emma?” she asked again, her voice low and worried.

“This is going to out me,” pushed its way out of her mouth, her voice raw, full of pain, and Emma immediately wished she could catch it back.

Now Regina blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“I’m gay,” she said again in that same strange, not-her voice. Why couldn’t she shut the fuck up?

“But you were engaged to, oh, what was his name?” Regina was clearly baffled.

“Never met him, did you? Never saw me with him except on the red carpet.” Emma laughed bitterly. “It took me a long time to realize-” she trailed off.

“Realize what, Emma?” the older woman coaxed.

“That I was only with him because I thought I _should_ be, not because I wanted to be. That it was possible to feel,” she took a deep breath, “more.” She couldn’t look at Regina now.

“Okay,” Regina said slowly. “Well you don’t have to tell anyone.”

“Everyone’s going to know!”

“No one’s going to know,” Regina hissed.

“How do you know?!”

“Because no one knows about me!”

Emma’s head snapped up and she just stared. Regina? Regina was- But it was because she had slowly fallen in love with Regina over the years they’d been working together that she’d realized-

“So who’s the lucky lady?” Regina asked with clearly forced casualness.

“Don’t you know, Regina? It’s you.”

Their eyes caught and held. Emma forgot to breathe as Regina set the bottle down, then stepped closer and reached up to cup her cheek. “It is?” she whispered. All Emma could do was nod.

Then Regina was kissing her, and it was so sweet and so right and so incredibly much more than it had been as Allison and Elena. They were tentative at first, but soon Regina’s tongue flickered out to trace Emma’s lips. Emma groaned and opened her mouth to meet it, pulling Regina tight against her at the same time. Fuck, Regina was a good kisser, first playful, then intensely serious, nipping at her lip one moment and rubbing her nose intimately against Emma’s the next. The sensations were nearly overwhelming by themselves, but the emotions behind them made this the single most intense kiss Emma had ever had.

God, why had she wasted so much of her life trying to be straight when there was _this_?

**

The strobe of flashes was excruciating, as usual, but it was the price of fame, Emma supposed.

She turned to the next camera, microphone, and excessively-smiling blonde woman, knowing already what the question would be. “Fans of the show are over the moon that you two have found a real life romance,” the woman squeaked. “Can you talk about how you knew she was The One for you?”

Emma gave an ingratiating smile. “You know, it didn’t hit me all at once like a lightbulb. More like, it creeped up until I was in real trouble."

The woman giggled. “Is it hard working together and living together?” Yeah, Emma had never heard _that_ one before.

“Well, you know, the hours are long and it’s hard not to bring set frustrations home, but we make it work. We try to be professional and not gross out our coworkers giggling and staring deep into each other’s eyes.”

“But it’s hard to resist this one,” Regina put in smoothly, stepping into the frame and sliding her arm around Emma’s back.

Emma knew her face had slid from PR-polite into a real smile, that she was looking at Regina like she was everything. But that was okay, because she was.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Regina plays her character like she’s in love because, well, she is. It’s been written that way, and she’s been told that by the writers, and she’s known from the beginning. Now, a few seasons in, it’s finally going to be revealed. They are going to become canon, and it means touching. Kissing. This makes Emma extremely nervous and uncomfortable. Not because she’s homophobic or that she dislikes Regina. Quite the opposite, she’s slowly fallen in love with Regina over the years they’ve been working together (AKA I got prompted Morrilla and this is the compromise).
> 
> Special thanks to Chrmdpoet for letting me include Popcorn Love as one of the in-jokes.


End file.
